What Kind of a Company Culture Are You Most Comfortable With?

When someone asks you to talk about the company culture you are most comfortable with, you better make sure you have put some thought into this answer before the actual interview. Better yet, you should know the answer to this question before you even start applying for jobs.

Imagine all the time you would save applying to jobs if you could eliminate 50% of them just based off the company culture. By spending some time upfront, you will not only save time applying.

But you will be very confident in an interview when asked what kind of a company culture are you most comfortable with.

Innovative vs Structured

When determining a company culture that would be a good fit, there are really only 2 main categories to worry about.

Innovative: Many startups are known for the type of culture that they provide. Google was the first company to really take this seriously and since Google, everyone else has tried to copy them.

If you go to Mountain View, CA and check out the Google facility you are going to see just about everything. From bicycles, massage stations, restaurants, and work pods, to outdoor offices, gyms, and hangout areas, Google has it all.

Google has pioneered the idea of an ideal company culture. They take care of their employees and provide them with the freedom to be creative and happy, and in return, Google employees produce the highest quality work. That is their approach. However, some people prefer a more calm, structured company culture.

Structured: Many organizations that have been around for a very long time such as UPS could be considered extremely structured. There is a strict hierarchy at UPS. Seniority will always outweigh productivity. One big positive is that job stability at these types of organizations is extremely high compared to a start-up company.

Structured organizations have a set way of doing things and a proven method that works, so why change it? Change is very hard to come by in these types of organizations. As an employee, you are really not incentivized or inspired to think outside the box of your job description. After this article, learn How To Answer The 16 Most Common Interview Questions.

How to choose

So how do you choose? There are a few questions that you should ask yourself to see which type of a company culture you would fit in best with.

Do you enjoy frequent change?

Would you consider yourself a creative worker?

Do you enjoy interacting with people?

Would you like your work to be a “fun” place or do you prefer your fun to be outside of work?

Do you believe productivity should outweigh seniority?

If your answer is “YES” to most of those questions, then you would probably enjoy working at a company with a startup-y culture. Just to clarify, Google is far from being a startup and they offer this amazing culture that all the top startups are copying. You do not need to be a startup company in order to have this kind of culture. There are plenty of large organizations that offer this sort of company culture.

Stick to your guns

It is important that when you are evaluating a company to apply for, you do some research to determine what kind of a company culture is offered. At the end of the day, stick with your preference and be honest about the type of company culture you would enjoy the most. The last thing you want to do is get stuck at an organization that you really are not going to enjoy 1 year down the road.

If you need some extra help preparing for an interview, check out Find My Profession. We guarantee that with our help, you will find your dream career in no time!

The FMP Contributor

The FMP Contributor is the daily publication of Find My Profession. Your #1 career advice resource.

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